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It only seems right that Captain Marvel is being released on 2019’s International Women's Day. Since 2008’s Iron-Man, Marvel has presented a good chain, albeit a bit short, of strong women characters starting with Pepper Potts. Black Widow became the first Marvel female superhero to grace the screens in Iron-Man 2 followed by Scarlet Witch, Gamora, Mantis, The Wasp, Okoye and Shuri. But today, Brie Larson heads the first female-driven superhero movie for Marvel Studios.

Let’s just get this out of the way – this movie packs a “girl power” punch without putting men down in the process. While their intentions are good, too many films try to present a message of female empowerment while emasculating men in the process. Sure, the opposite has been true for many years, but this is no way to move on with injustice and certainly isn’t a message that today’s girls need to here.

Marvel Studios has toyed with an “anything you can do, I can do better” attitude between its men and…

This Day in Pop Culture for April 26

'The Voice' is Heard for the First Time

The television singing competition reality TV series, The Voice, aired for the first time on this day in 2011. The NBC show is based on The Voice of Holland, where contestants try to get the attention of the four celebrity judges by singing to their backs. If one of more of the judges turn their chairs to face “the voice,” the contestant will join that celebrity’s team of singers. If more than one chair is turned, the contestant gets to choose which team they would like to join. After all of the teams are filled, the contestants are coached by the judges and perform live on TV where viewers vote on the best performances. Those who have served as coaches on the show include Adam Levine, Blake Shelton, Christina Aguilera, CeeLo Green, Shakira, Usher, Gwen Stefani, Pharrell Williams, Miley Cyrus and Alicia Keys.

Tugboat Mickey Premieres

Between 1935 and 1940, Walt Disney produced a number of animated shorts that starred Mickey Mouse, Goofy and Donald Duck working together as a team. While popular, the studio soon realized that Donald’s and Goofy’s antics outshined Mickey’s. On this day, Tugboat Mickey was released as the last one. The three didn’t appear on screen together until 1983’s Mickey’s Christmas Carol. The trio reunited to work together as a team in Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers, a straight-to-video produced in 2004. In 2013, a new version Mickey cartoons began to be shown on the Disney Channel featuring the old friends albeit in slightly different forms.

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VIDEO OF THE DAY
New second trailer for DC's Shazam! I'm not thrilled with the idea of kids seeing the superhero-in-training buying beer, but the rest looks good. Shazam! comes to theaters on April 5, 2019.

The Hula-Hoop Receives a Trademark
Although invented for hundreds of years earlier, Arthur Melin, founder of Wham-O products, received a trademark for “his” version of the hoop toy on this day in 1963. The Hula-Hoop was the first hoop toy to be made with plastic with the “shoop shoop” sound inside. The very first were sold for $1.98 and twenty million hoops were sold in the first six months of production. It was a big hit world-wide except for Japan who thought it incited improprieties and Russia who thought it was an example of the “emptiness of American culture.” In 1999, the Hula-Hoop was inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame.

MOVIE REVIEW
While not exactly a golden rule, it is known fact that if a movie does well in the box office, chances are good that it will be followed by sequel and more often than not, we’ve come to expect that the sequel won’t measure up to the original. Add a third movie to the mix and you’re just asking for trouble. With animated movies, the expectations are often even lower. (Is anyone really surprised that the Ice Age movies keep getting worse?) But sometimes, as is the case with the Disney/Pixar Toy Story movies, we’re pleasantly surprised. Now you can add How to Train Your Dragon to that short list too.

One thing that DreamWorks Animation has understood about this series is that the story comes first, the hijinks come later. The very first Dragon movie proved that way back in 2010 with a strong story and with each chapter that has come after it, that story just keeps getting better. What started out as a cute kid’s story has become a powerful trilogy. We've seen these chara…